Field of the Invention
This application relates to managing peripheral devices using visual indicators in graphical user interfaces. In particular, this application is related to the visual representation of objects, such as peripheral devices, in graphic user interface environments in order to visually convey information about the objects.
Description of the Related Technology
Existing graphical user interfaces (also referred to herein as “GUI's”) often represent files and folders by displaying the name of file or folder textually within the GUI. Additional information about the file or folder such as the size, type, and date is often displayed alongside the icon. Existing GUI's also use static icons to represent files, directories, devices, and other artifacts. FIG. 1 provides an example of how static icons are typically used in the context of an e-mail application. As is known in the art, unopened e-mail messages are often represented by icons which take the appearance of an unopened envelope such as envelope 100. When the message is viewed by the user, the icon changes its appearance to that of an opened envelope 102. This allows the user to know that the state of the underlying object (the e-mail message) has changed from unopened to opened.